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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Closing Ceremony
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"It's a strange feeling."
"Is it?"
"Of course it is. It's already been half a year, half a year."
At Amelia's words, I finally realized how quickly time had flown.
Half a year already.
I had been so focused on the fact that it was vacation that I'd missed how much time had passed.
"I definitely thought I'd make a ton of friends and just have a normal time."
"You're quite the dreamer, Yu Siwoo."
"...Wait, is just living a normal life dreaming big?"
"Given your situation, wouldn't you say that's true?"
...Yeah, I guess it is. No one could have imagined my school life getting this complicated right from the start.
I never thought I'd get this close to a student whose identity I couldn't grasp, and another whose thoughts I couldn't fathom.
Did she know that if half the reason for my abnormal life was Arte, the other half was Amelia?
She probably had no idea. She looked completely oblivious right now.
I sighed and spoke to Amelia.
"We never did find it, the secret room."
"You yourself said it was a mistake to think we could find it in half a year."
"So, the plan we changed to also fell through?"
"Ugh..."
For half a year, we'd been tearing the academy apart.
Using "club activities" as an excuse, we'd turned every possible location upside down, so to speak.
...But it wasn't there. No matter how hard we looked, there was no secret room.
"Maybe there really isn't a secret room? Even the club president seemed to lose their drive after searching so hard at first."
"...You can't just blame the president, Yu Siwoo. Both you and I lost our motivation ages ago."
"Yeah, well. That's true."
To be honest, everyone was really enthusiastic at first.
We thought that if we could just find the secret room somehow while we were still enrolled in the academy, we could get our hands on that dangerous artifact first.
That's why I joined the exploration club, so I embellished the story and told the president there was such a thing.
The excited president, along with Amelia and me, who desperately needed to find the secret room, searched diligently for several months.
...Yes, we searched. Now, no one in the club is searching anymore.
"Phew, if there was even a little progress, we'd do something. I truly understood what they meant when they said treading water can break your spirit."
"...I've never felt that way before either."
Amelia and I realized something while searching for the secret room for half a year.
Why people hated repeating the same tasks.
Why people hated training.
"I never knew how hard it would be to make no progress."
"Right. When Grandpa said many people disliked training, I honestly didn't get it. But now I do."
Amelia and I had seen countless times how much our classmates disliked attending classes and disliked self-improvement.
And every time we saw it, we wondered why they hated it. After all, the sense of accomplishment when something impossible gradually became possible after a few days of practice was great.
...And the answer to that question, we realized through our own feelings. And we thought:
It was understandable to hate it.
"That feeling when it suddenly hit you that you were just passing time without any results... *shudder*."
Amelia rubbed her arm, as if she had goosebumps.
Yes, that's why we gave up. After admitting our arrogance.
...How could a mere student possibly find a secret room that the academy's founder had hidden with their life, a room no one had discovered for hundreds of years, in less than half a year?
Especially with no clues whatsoever.
So, we gave up on finding it first and waited for Arte to find the artifact.
We planned to somehow reclaim it right before she took it.
She was far stronger than any student, she had clues about the secret room, and though we didn't know the exact number, she even had allies.
So, we changed our strategy: get stronger somehow and ambush her just before she got her hands on the artifact.
Though that plan was scrapped yesterday.
"...Oh, it's Dorothy! Over here! Here!"
Amelia raised her hand high and waved, shouting.
Just then, Dorothy came hurrying over from a distance, her brown hair fluttering behind her.
"Gasp, gasp... Oh, hello."
"You could have taken your time."
"B-But still. We agreed to hang out to celebrate the break, so it wouldn't be good to be late, right?"
Dorothy's radiant smile was dazzling.
What a sensible thing to say.
If it were Amelia, she'd probably say, "Really? So it's okay if I'm a little late next time?" and then actually start showing up a bit tardy.
"...What's with that weird stare?"
"No, nothing."
Had I inadvertently looked at her with strange eyes?
I mumbled an excuse to the questioning Amelia, saying it was nothing.
It would be a bit awkward if she kept asking.
"It's probably about to start, let's find our seats."
"Okay. ...But where's Arte?"
"...Huh? I just saw her over there. Where did she go...?"
Despite our efforts to find Arte, we ultimately couldn't.
Just where had she vanished to...?
Amelia grumbled about Arte.
"I told her we'd go somewhere after the closing ceremony... Where on earth did she disappear to?"
"Well. We can just call her after it's over, so let's sit down for now."
"Phew... I'll endure, I'll endure..."
...To be honest, Amelia and I had significantly lowered our guard around Arte.
The circumstantial evidence that she was a member of Arachne was almost conclusive.
Amelia and I believed it was true, but perhaps because we hadn't actually seen it? Our wariness towards her gradually faded.
It felt a bit strange for someone aiming to be a hero to think this way, but perhaps it was fair to say that my honest feeling was that I didn't really care about the people who died.
All I'd heard was news of their deaths; they had no connection to me.
Besides, they weren't victims or innocent civilians.
They were villains who had relentlessly tormented people.
There was even news that among the deceased villains, there was a criminal who had murdered a former investigator and nearly 30 civilians before being released from prison.
They might not have committed crimes. The deceased villain might have been framed.
...But was it because I was narrow-minded that, given the overwhelmingly blatant circumstantial evidence, I could only think they deserved to die?
Was it because I was a cruel person that even though I suspected Arte had killed people, I didn't feel much repulsion?
I didn't know.
"Ah, ah. The closing ceremony will begin shortly, so students, please take your seats..."
"Haa. Where on earth did she disappear to?"
Even Amelia, her initial hostility nowhere to be found, seemed to be feeling a sense of closeness towards Arte.
Excluding me, Arte, and now Dorothy, whom she'd recently started talking to, the people she conversed with could be counted on one hand.
Perhaps she still thought she needed to stop Arte, but also genuinely considered her a friend.
She had started treating her casually, so it was probably true.
"Hey, it's really about to start. Sit down, sit down."
And I, feeling a sense of emptiness from Arte's absence, probably wasn't much different.
It was true she was dangerous, and I didn't know her background either, or if she was plotting something dangerous against me.
...But even with Arte being like that, the experience of having been close for even just half a year wouldn't disappear.
I, too, had somehow come to consider Arte a precious friend.
Whether Amelia's plan succeeded or failed,
I hoped, in my heart, that she would have good experiences during the break.
***
"And finally, everything you all have learned at the academy over the past half year..."
"Here we go again."
The principal's moralizing speech, which showed no signs of ending, had already been going on for over ten minutes.
I thought it would end, but it didn't. I thought *this* time it would surely end, but the pronouncements just kept going.
Even when I thought an hour must have passed and checked my watch, despairing to see only ten minutes had gone by, his voice still pierced my ears.
During that seemingly eternal, boring time, Dorothy was voicing her complaints.
"Amelia... she's passed out."
Half slumped and zoned out, she looked completely different from her usual self.
To think such an energetic person could end up like this.
Just as I felt my body starting to stiffen, a thought suddenly struck me.
...This spot, right here.
It looked familiar. A spot I'd seen many times before.
Where was it? The only thing I remembered about this auditorium was the monster attack...
"S-Siwoo?"
"Student! What's wrong! Please sit down immediately!"
Ignoring the teachers who were scolding me and approaching from a distance, I looked towards the spot where Arte had been on the entrance ceremony day.
Arte wasn't there. But I felt a sense of déjà vu.
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't shake off the feeling of unease. It was as if my head would split from the effort.
Where had Arte vanished to?
I hurriedly opened the closed window and checked outside the auditorium.
"...This is crazy."
"Student! Sit down—what is that?"
Carrying the wind and rain, hundreds of people were approaching the academy.